Movies
‘They Call Him Zorro’ – Joe Begos to Helm Violent Action-Horror Take on Legendary Vigilante
Joe Begos (Christmas Bloody Christmas, Jimmy and Stiggs) will write and direct They Call Him Zorro, a violent twist on the legendary masked vigilante, Deadline reports.
The film will draw on the original writings of Johnston McCulley, who first introduced Zorro in his 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano, but through a horror lens.
In the film, when Diego Vega is framed by a group of dirty city officials for a crime he didn’t commit, he escapes from prison and starts a relentless no-holds barred vengeance on corruption and crime in present day Los Angeles.
The media quickly finds a name for the masked vigilante riding a black El Camino armed with chains, machetes, electric saws, and a sawed-off shotgun: Zorro.
Production and sales outfit WTFilms is producing alongside Begos’ Channel 83.
“All of my favorite action movies, from T2 to Heat, were shot on location in Los Angeles, and it’s always been a dream of mine to inhabit the same cultural playground to stage some of the most high octane and explosive set pieces imaginable,” said Begos. “This project is the perfect opportunity to showcase the beauty of the city, the beauty of its culture, and pull off some old school practical action filmmaking bathed in the crisp golden hour glow of Hollywood”
Begos, who shot his previous movies on 16mm, plans to shoot They Call him Zorro on 35mm film. “We want to bring back the feel and visual texture of action references such as To Live and Die in L.A., RoboCop, or Hard Boiled,” he noted.
“This is not your parents’ Zorro. In our iteration, the masked folk hero has more to do with dark and violent characters such as The Punisher or The Crow,” added WTFilms co-head Gregory Chambet. “What if instead of being a coward by day, sword-yielding funny scoundrel by night, Diego Vega came back for vengeance in the form of a scary, brutal vigilante.”
WTFilms is in the process of financing, with casting underway. “There is a lack of roles for talented Hispanic actors. Zorro is a Mexican character and we want to create a badass icon that makes the Latino community excited and proud,” Chambet said. “We will have done our job right if people start dressing up as this new version of Zorro for Halloween.”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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